ImmortalR

Hey guys,

Need some help wiring my front door speakers to my amp. My setup is like this, I'm trying to find the speaker level outputs of the front doors so I can install a LOC so I can use it for a pre-amp signal to the amp. I've found speaker level outputs for the rear doors fine but when I wiring up what I thought was the speaker level outputs for the Front Right door (blue/green wires near the foot wells) and tested the setup, my sound seems to be only coming from my dash right speakers, not my front right door speakers. I assume I got it wrong? Any suggestions?

Elex

Do you have the ML or base system? If you have the ML then that color combo only goes to the dash tweeters. If you have the base, the that color combo first goes to the tweeters and then continues on to the front door woofers. You could have picked it up between the tweeters and the woofer, if I understand your problem. Have you considered tapping into the speaker level wires as they come out of the factory amp in the trunk - right side quarter panel?

ImmortalR

I have the base model. Does the base models have the factory amp?

Elex

Yes, even the base system has a factory amp located in the right rear trunk area (you have to pull down/remove the carpeted liner on the right/passenger side and look in behind a metal brace - it is in behind this brace slightly behind the rear wheel well - you will also see all the harnesses leading to the amp). There are 3 nuts that hold secure the amp that are easily accessible - it should be easy to have the amp out in 15 minutes.

From the head unit to the amp in the trunk runs 4 wires that supply full range left and right positive and negative sound signal. This is a constant level though, so you cannot use this to run an aftermarket amp (and bypass the factory amp). Unless you want to control the volume at the aftermarket amp and not use the volume control on the head unit. I tried this and found out that the volume control must take place in the amp itself. So you are stuck trying to hook in your aftermarket amp somewhere between the factory amp and the speakers - not the best situation as the factory base amp is weak.

From the base factory amp - there are only 1 set of wires that contain full range signal - and those are the wires to the front speakers (front dash tweeters and front door - excluding the center channel speaker). These wires are as follows:

Front right (+) = Green
Front right (-) = Blue
Front left (+) = Pink
Front left (-) = Purple

These wires go from the factory amp in the trunk to the front dash (corner) speakers and then down into the door speakers. There is a capacitor at the dash speaker, so that the dash tweeters only get the high frequencies and not the bass.

If you are trying to run an aftermarket amp, I would suggest tying into those wires somewhere between the factory amp in the trunk and the tweeter speakers - it probably makes the most sense to do this in the trunk if that is where your amp is going to reside. The run new wires from your aftermarket amp to your new speakers.

FYI - the other speaker wire colors are as follows:

Rear right (+) = Red
Rear right (-) = White
Rear left (+) = blackish Brown
Rear left (-) = Yellow
(Note these are not full range either - they only carry bass)

Subwoofer
1st channel (+) = Red
1st channel (-) = White
2nd channel (+) = Green
2nd channel (-) = Black
(Note these are not full range either - they only carry bass)


Also, in case someone looks at this for the ML system, it is different, there are somethings the same and some different.

Good luck with your installation

KFinch

Hi. Thanks for the post. Where did you get this info re the rear speakers being only for base? This surprises me, since I thought the factor rear door speakers were coaxials.

KFinch

Actually, now that I look at a picture of the speaker, it does look like a midwoofer with no tweeter. On the other hand, I'm confident that they send full signal to the midwoofers in the front doors (they aren't filtered at the tweeter), so it would be odd not to do so for the rears. And I've read where some people installed coaxials in the back and were happy with them. Are you sure the amp filters that signal down to midbass only?

Thanks, again.

Robert_J

Probably full range. Maybe a whizzer cone. That was the only thing I did not touch on my upgrade. I don't care what the people in the back seat hear.

Midwoofers in front do run full range and are in parallel with the tweeters in the dash. A lot of the information for my upgrade came from this thread https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es3...eo-system.html

KFinch

Thanks for the response. Yeah, I had seen that thread. It's a good thread, and it's where I saw that some people had installed full range coaxials in the back. And, as you said, the stock set up doesn't filter the signal to the front woofers (they are soldered in parallel with the tweets), so I'm not sure why they would bother in the back, especially since the rear seats don't get the benefit of the front tweeters.

I'm about half way into this process - I had planned to put Polk MM6501 up front and and MM651 in the rear. I'm starting to wonder if this is a mistake. I installed one Polk mid woofer up front (without the cross over), and it's striking how much of the signal seems to be missing. In other words, mixed with the stock tweeter, there seems to be a range missing - suggesting that the stock woofer plays more full range than the polk woofer. Maybe this is because of the "whizzer cone" you described.

This frequency gap will obviously be solved when I install the polk tweeter and crossover in the dash, but I wonder if that tweeter location is really meant to carry much signal, or if it gets lost by pointing it at the window. It also looks like the Polk tweeter is a little big for the slot in the dash and will require some cutting to the cover/grill to give it space.

I'm starting to think a pair of 6x9 coax in the doors would have been best. They would have fit perfectly, in retrospect.

Robert_J

If you go with 6x9 in the door, check the depth. I was worried when I installed my mid-basses.

I think it depends on the component system. I chose mine based on hundreds of forum reviews at sites like ca.com, soundsolutionsaudio.com, icix.com, CACO, DIYMA, etc. I wanted the Crescendo components but they were discontinued and they are difficult to find. The PG's were discontinued as well but there were more floating around and it was easy to find them. My buddy with the Crescendos says they sound similar....I like the fact that the tweeter carries a lot of information. It really brings the soundstage up from my thighs and places it solidly on the dash.

KFinch

That's reassuring. Forgive my ignorance, but what are the "PGs"?

Also, did you ever put in a new sub and/or aftermarket amp. If you put in the amp, and you had factory nav/bluetooth, I assume you fed the amp with the speaker level inputs from the old amp. Was that difficult and/or worth it? I"m afraid that using the speaker lines to feed another amp might be like putting lipstick on a pig.

Thanks, again.

KFinch

Never mind. I see your other thread now. You didn't keep the factory head unit.